


Watch the World Fall

by navaan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Character Study, Community: rarewomen, F/M, POV Female Character, Post-Avengers (2012), Pre-Avengers (2012), Team Dynamics, reflections
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-24
Updated: 2013-04-24
Packaged: 2017-12-09 09:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/772634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of <i>Thor</i> Jane returns to work and then she watches the events of <i>The Avengers</i> from protective custody and gets to meet Thor's new friends.</p><p>slight Thor/Jane</p><p>side appearances of Darcy and the team</p>
            </blockquote>





	Watch the World Fall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chosenfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chosenfire/gifts).



Jane Foster had always been a scientist. She was proud of having an analytical mind. But when she was trying to prove a theory she was also ready to push the boundaries of what other scientist believed in. It was what had brought her to New Mexico. It was what had made her realize that there were even far more unexplained things out there in this universe than any astrophysicist would ever have dreamed of.

She had met Thor. Thor, as in the actual Norse god. Although it was obvious that he was more than a myth, but more likely an alien from another planet. But even for the most scientific mind it was hard to look past the aura of the mystical and magical, when you had witnessed an Asgardian come back into his incredible power right in front of your very eyes.

Jane Foster knew what it felt like to fall in love. And so she had no trouble admitting that she _had_ fallen in love. Not at first sight – which would have been weird with Thor falling from the skies and hitting her car – but gradually, learning to accept this weird stranger who'd literally crashed into her life under mysterious circumstances. At the time she hadn't been looking for love at all. She'd just come out of a relationship and the only thing she'd been after had been proof for her own theories – not love. 

But obviously she'd gotten more than she'd bargained for. 

Now Thor was back in Asgard and Jane had no way of knowing what had happened after his return to his home world. He'd left after a battle that had nearly killed him and knowing he was going to war with his brother.

It all sounded dramatic and unreal and if she hadn't seen it happening in front of her, she wasn't sure she would have believed him. 

And now he was gone and she didn't even know if he was alright.

Now, she didn't waste her time pining after him.

After all she hadn't just fallen in love. She'd also just made an amazing discovery. Suddenly there was S.H.I.E.L.D. - interested in funding her research. There was work to do. More discoveries to be made. Research papers to be written.

She had no time to mourn the budding relationship that now seemed impossible, but she wasn't giving up. If Thor was out there on Asgard, she now had the means to find him.

And sometimes in the evenings when she was sitting alone outside, watching the black night sky, searching it, she remembered his soft spoken explanations about the seven realms, about the far away stars she was looking for - and felt that he was close to her even if he was far away.

* * *

She was making progress. She was sure of it. Soon she'd find the gateway to Asgard. Professor Selvig had been called off to work on a S.H.I.E.L.D. project, that someone in charge seemed to think was connected to the progress they were making on the gateway research. Jane didn't ask questions, because S.H.I.E.L.D. involvement made her uneasy. It was the dream of every scientist to work on well funded projects, but she didn't know enough about this particular law-enforcement or spy agency to feel entirely comfortable around them. 

Darcy was watching her with a slight frown. “When will Professor Selvig be back?”

“Tomorrow,” she said and looked at her. “Why?”

Darcy just nodded into the direction of the door. 

A group of heavily armed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents was blocking the entrance and Jane was surprised that she hadn't even heard them entering. _Spies,_ she thought, that uneasy feeling taking hold of the pit of her stomach again. _Definitely spies._

“Dr. Foster?” one of the female agents, clad in something that looked like a body suit, asked.

“Yes?”

“I'm sorry, but we'll have to move you at once.”

“Move? Why? I don't see...”

“Something happened. It is best that you don't remain here. Dr. Selvig knows the location of this lab?”

“Yes. I don't see how...”

“There has been a incident.” 

Jane's first thoughts were of explosions and dead bodies, of terrorist attacks and a lost friends. Of course, she had no way of knowing that she wasn't entirely wrong. She couldn't have imagined the truth, though.

* * *

She and Darcy were moved to what the agents were calling a secure location. To Jane it looked like a bunker. At first nobody was really forthcoming with information, but it seemed that the lab Erik Selvig had been in had been destroyed and whatever he'd been there to look at had vanished along with the professor. Only a while later did Jane figure out what that meant.

Darcy was complaining endlessly about their confinement, until all the agents gathered around a monitor that was showing the news.

“Is that happening right now? In Germany?” Jane asked. “But that's...”

“That's the reason why you're here.”

The reason she was here. “ _This_ is what's been going on. And nobody told us?”

“You don't have clearance.”

“I don't have clearance to know why I have to be protected? Does that make sense to anybody?”

The agent stared at her hard. Obviously it made sense to military types.

“Do we have clearance to meet the new guy, who goes around parading as Captain America?” Darcy asked from somewhere behind Jane. “He sure looks good in that uniform.”

She turned to look at the monitor again in time to see the entrance of Tony Stark in his famous Iron Man suit. _There_ was a man she'd like to meet. Did Stark Industries have use for astrophysicists who'd had it with S.H.I.E.L.D. interfering in their work?

It took some effort not to role her eyes again. Instead she took a seat in front of the little monitor and watched. Another Asgardian on earth. Loki. Thor's brother. The one he'd gone off to fight.

She didn't like it.

* * *

Like most people across the country, across the world, she was just sitting there, watching aliens invade New York, watching heroes strike back.

She'd seen what the destroyer could do, but that was nothing in comparison to the destruction an invading extraterrestrial army could wreak. For the first time in month she was seeing Thor. Asgardian, godlike Thor. Fighting alongside the Captain America she'd seen on the news a few hours before, alongside the Hulk and Iron Man.

It was surreal. Just like a movie.

And there was this glaring big dimensional portal on top of Stark Tower letting more and more aliens through.

Another far part of the universe opened to they eyes of humanity.

The astrophysicist in her wanted to see it for herself. The human just wanted for humanity to walk away from this alive.

* * *

Then the moment came and the earth was saved. The city had taken a beating, but the planet was safe.

Jane couldn't really take it in. It was still like a horrible disaster movie. Just Thor, standing in the middle of it all, gave it some connection to herself.

 

“Jane,” he said and she turned around surprised. She was standing outside their little SHIELD bunker. There were no more agents around, only Thor standing there, clean, but tired looking.

“Hi,” she said and knew she was smiling a silly broad smile.

“I wanted to see you.”

“I saw you. On TV. And...”

“I can't stay on Midgard long. But I wanted to see you, Jane.” For a moment her heart stopped and she thought he would ask her to come along to Asgard. Then he looked at her sheepishly. “Do you have urgent matters to attend to here? Or can you come with me?”

She turned around, still no agents around. “Darcy, is...”

“She'll be safe here.” 

Jane knew that this wasn't the point, because Darcy would be alright, but less than pleased for being left behind. “I'll call her from wherever we are going...” she said to Thor, although she knew she would feel bad about it later.

Thor just held out a hand.

* * *

She wasn't sure what she had been expecting. Who knew what could happen when a god of thunder asked you along for the ride? Next stop Asgard?

For a moment her heart was beating so fast she was afraid it would just jump out of her chest. Then she realized that this wasn't Asgard at all. It was New York. Still standing.

“We were thinking of putting Loki away in a S.H.I.E.L.D. dungeon,” Thor was explaining the moment he set her back on the ground inside something that looked like the entrance to a bigger lab. 

“Then we decided, it was a stupid idea, because S.H.I.E.L.D. had already lost him once too often,” another voice said from within, and Jane's heart was beating faster again. “So we're doing our best to contain him in my short notice improvised high-tech dungeon down here.”

Before she could stop herself she mumbled: “You're Tony Stark.”

“Yeah,” the Stark said, yawning, not even looking up from whatever it was he was doing.

“And we're just figuring out that the way to make him stop talking constantly is to let him do science in his basement,” the red haired woman told her. She was dressed in what looked like a S.H.I.E.L.D. jumpsuit, and Jane had seen her fighting beside Thor and Captain America in the news footage. Now she was casually leaning against the table beside Stark. She was staring at Jane, as if she was trying to figure her out. 

So Jane looked up at Thor, who just smiled and ushered her further into the room.

In the corner two men were occupying a sofa. One of them was giving her a covert look, the other, dark haired one was slumped over to his side, softly snoring. Jane recognized Dr. Banner immediately, shocked that her first glimpse of this man, who was also the Hulk, would be of a man sleeping in a room full of people.

“Hawkeye,” Thor greeted the other man.

“Man, Thor, call me Clint already. All this formal warrior shit is hard to take when you're too tired to think straight,” the man replied, smiling, although he really did look tired.

Thor just nodded, taking it in stride. Jane had no idea what she was supposed to think or do. Or why she was here.

Then she heard footsteps behind them and turned just in time to see another handsome man enter. He was wearing a dirty white t-shirt and jeans and scanned the room before fully entering. “Don't you ever sleep?” he asked Stark, who was still not really looking up, but peeked at him for a second. 

“You're one to talk, old man. Were you helping with clean up in your civies?”

The woman chuckled. “Of course, he did. He's Captain America.” 

Then the man, who'd just been identified as the Captain America she'd already seen on TV, turned towards her and smiled, extending a hand. Jane felt her face heat up, instantly feeling like a silly little teenager. “You must be Jane,” he said.

She looked up at Thor for help again, but found him smiling at her, tiredly, but with an amused glint in his blue eyes. So she shook the man's hand and got herself together. “Jane Foster. Nice to meet you, Captain.”

“Steve,” he said.

Tony Stark – and it was really hard to take in that this was really _the_ Tony Stark – turned around in his chair and watched the two of them shaking hands. He looked uncannily like all the pictures she'd seen of him over the years. A little more worn. A little more tired. A few bruises marring his face. The redhead reached for something and then set a glass of water down beside him. Stark looked at it warily and then back at the woman, as if there was some silent negotiation going on between them. Then he picked it up to take a sip, turning his attention back to Thor, Steve and her.

“Don't try to hog all her attention, Cap. She's not here to be swept away by Captain America. I've got something much better. You've worked with Selvig, right?” he asked, his eyes finally settling on her. “I have something here that you might want to look at.” He motioned for her to step closer and she felt Thor's hand settle at the small of her back, reassuring and warm. She stepped forward to look at whatever it was Stark wanted her to see.

“Where is Dr. Selvig?” she asked tentatively.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier.” Stark made a wavy hand gesture.

“I suppose he is taking some rest,” the redhead explained, side-eying Stark.

“Jarvis? Call up the specs of... there they are.”

Jane couldn't do much more than stare. “What is... This is... From the other side of that portal?”

“Yup,” Stark said, as if it was nothing. “Part of the universe no human has ever seen before. Well, apart from me. This is all the armor could record, before I fell back to earth. We have some more readings Jarvis took from this side of the portal...”

“I should really, really be scared,” Jane said out loud, looking at all the data that was suddenly popping up on the big holographic screens, trying to take it all in.

“You're a scientist. We don't get scared by new discovery,” Stark said.

“A bit more fear would do you some good sometimes, Tony,” a sleepy voice said, slurring slightly. Jane looked up and then realized that it had been Dr. Banner speaking, although his eyes were still closed.

* * *

“So. You're keeping Loki here?”

She and Thor were up on top of Stark Tower, inspecting the remains of the machine Selvig had built for Loki. Tony Stark had finally been tired enough to admit that he needed rest. Natasha had assured her that the sole fact that he was admitting to it without being pressured by anyone was a bit worrying. She and Steve had stayed behind to keep an eye on Loki's makeshift prison, while Clint Barton was watching what Jane had learned was called the Tesseract. A little piece of mythical, alien tech that had caused most of their problems.

“My brother is contained downstairs. He can't cast magic for the moment.” A sad expression flitted across Thor's face and Jane felt bad for bringing it up. But there was still so much she didn't even begin to understand, questions she wanted to ask, her mind racing with the need for more answers.

“You'll bring him back to Asgard?” she asked in a whisper.

“Yes. It has to be done. No earth prison will be strong enough to hold him for long.”

She nodded, already having expected the answer.

He stepped up to her, taking her hand and pulling her towards him. He smelled of ozone and rain, and that should really not have been as sexy as it was. “But I'll come back again,” he said, leaning over her. “I'll always come back.”

She was the one to lean up an kiss him, just for a moment, just making that connection she'd been longing for. “I knew that,” she whispered. “I never doubted it.”

It wasn't good-bye yet, but it was the perfect moment to steal another kiss under the open sky, the stars above them invisible here in the big shining city, but undoubtedly there. 

Yes, the perfect moment. 

And just for now Jane could let go of her questions and admit again that she was in love.


End file.
